Sexually Dimorphic Control of Parenting Behavior by the Medial Amygdala.

ABSTRACT: Social behaviors, including behaviors directed toward young offspring, exhibit striking sex differences. Understanding how these sexually dimorphic behaviors are regulated at the level of circuits and transcriptomes will provide insights into neural mechanisms of sex-specific behaviors. Here, we uncover a sexually dimorphic role of the medial amygdala (MeA) in governing parental and infanticidal behaviors. Contrary to traditional views, activation of GABAergic neurons in the MeA promotes parental behavior in females, while activation of this population in males differentially promotes parental versus infanticidal behavior in an activity-level-dependent manner. Through single-cell transcriptomic analysis, we found that molecular sex differences in the MeA are specifically represented in GAB

SUBMITTER: Chen PB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6555485 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature